Barbarians at the Gate
Barbarians at the Gates provides a remarkably detailed account of the events preceding the megabuck takeover of RJR Nabisco. Wall Street correspondents, Burrough and Helyar, offer a comprehensive and cohesive narrative of a multilateral battle that in many respects apotheosized years of distressed excess in the financial community. Burrough and Helyar do an excellent job of recounting the value judgments and personality conflicts that encouraged the protracted engagement. While their lengthy chronicle steers clear of assessing the disputed transaction's socioeconomic implications, it presents a definitive reading on one of the less enlightening chapters in capitalism's checkered history.
A superlative book...steadily builds suspense until the very end.
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
It’s hard to imagine a better story...and it’s hard to imagine a better account
— Chicago Tribune
The fascinating inside story of the largest corporate takeover in American history… It reads like a novel.
— Today Show
The most piercing and compelling narrative of a deal to date.
— Boston Globe
Impressive qualities... delicious scenes... a cinematic yet extraordinarily careful book.
— Ken Auletta
One of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980s.
On the exercise of careless greed by Johnson and his gang of adolescents. The barbarians were at the gates of a city of vulgarians. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (Booknews.com)
— Booknews